How to make a usb flash drive bootable?

[TechSupp]

I want to make my usb memory stick bootable, found some guides on the web and not having much sucess. I just want to boot on to the stick so I can run the ms Imagex tool to image the drive on to another external USB drive (or even if I can make the external drive bootable). Was supposed to be just for a quick job but turning out in to a longer one. Usually use clonezilla, just thought I would look at imagex.

[jamesfed]

Of late I've been running the Windows Defender Offline, deleting out the files on the stick and replacing them with a copy of Windows PE/ImageX.

 

Linky is - What is Windows Defender Offline?

[caffrey]

Search about for hirens boot disk, it is legit and I think it's got imagex on it, then write the iso to USB with unetbootin.

[RabbieBurns]

Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

 

lets you specify a windows 7 iso or such

[SimpleSi]

Of late I've been running the Windows Defender Offline, deleting out the files on the stick and replacing them with a copy of Windows PE/ImageX.

Why start from WDO if intending to use WinPE?

What's the advantage?

Si

[jamesfed]

Why start from WDO if intending to use WinPE?

What's the advantage?

Si

 

It creates the partitions/makes the stick bootable as part of the intial setup process.

[Arthur]

Or you could use DiskPart to create a bootable flash drive ready for Windows PE...

 

list disk
select disk [color="#FF0000"]#[/color]
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit

 

# = disk number of the USB flash drive shown in the first step

[Jobos]

How about WinToFlash - Install Windows from usb - Home page which I use to put UBCD on memory stick. If you want to use Clonezilla see Clonezilla Live on USB.

 

If anyone knows how to partition a memory stick so it has two partitions I would be very interested as I want to boot from one partition and keep the images on the other.

[Arthur]

If anyone knows how to partition a memory stick so it has two partitions I would be very interested

Create a multiple partition, multi-boot USB Flash drive under Windows « RMPrepUSB

[difinity]

I'm a big fan of xboot https://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/

[bwestlake]

Step 1: Format the Drive

The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]

1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive

2. Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”

3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:

diskpart

list disk

The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.

4. Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.

select disk 1

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format fs=NTFS

assign

exit

When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable

Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

1. Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.

2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:

d:

cd d:\boot

3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:

bootsect /nt60 g:

4. You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive

The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB

This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

[LeMarchand]

I've tried loads of "multiboot" platforms and used to use SARDU for this sort of thing, but the resulting drive kept needing rebuilding.

 

Been using WinSetFromUSB for a while, and while it doesn't seem as wide-ranging as SARDU, it does seem more stable and careful planning seems to have most of my needs on one stick.

 

Mind you, I generally find one of these bad boys is much more useful (though Dell machines don't seem to like to boot from the slightly older version I have).

[MrAnswerMan]

I want to make my usb memory stick bootable, found some guides on the web and not having much sucess. I just want to boot on to the stick so I can run the ms Imagex tool to image the drive on to another external USB drive (or even if I can make the external drive bootable). Was supposed to be just for a quick job but turning out in to a longer one. Usually use clonezilla, just thought I would look at imagex.

 

I've been researching for quite a while trying to make my usb stick bootable with Windows as well and some of the guides posted in this thread are a great help. It’s also possible to add malware scanning to the device as well, if you’re interested check it out here: opswat.com/blog/how-create-endpoint-scanning-bootable-usb-thumb-drive-windows

Edited June 13, 2013 by Dos_Box

[SovietRussia]

Try disk part and format it to ntfs

 

Google is your friend